International exhibition "Traditions of folk art of Mongolia" opened at the National Museum of Tuva on 29 April. The exposition shows women's and men's jewelry,, made in the traditional way of Mongolian masters of the jewelry art. They represent a concentration of the heritage of the multifaceted and unique Mongolian culture.

The author of the jewellery is an artist- craftsman Nyamsuren Dorjzhantsan. She was born in the town of Arvaikheer of the Ovurkhangai aimak of Mongolia. Since 1995 she has been involved with jewellery art. Nyamsuren is a Master of Arts, and a participant in many exhibitions in Mongolia, Russia, Korea, and other places. A significant proportion of the exhibition consists of antique folk locks, some of which are 300 years old. More than 52 of the locks and other objects of decorative-applied art is from the private collection of Otonbaatar Rinchensambuu, a science worker of the Academy of Sciences of Mongolia, a tibetologist and specialist in ancient Mongolian writing.

President of Mongolia Ts. Elbegdorj sent a letter of greetings to an American professor, anthropologist Jack Weatherford, congratulating him on his victory in a yearly contest of audio-books, where his book "Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World" won the first place.

"We Mongols are grateful to you, because your book about the role of Great Mongol Empire in history, and the cultural heritage of the Mongol people in the history of humankind became a significant step in the promotion and spread of factual and objective information throughout the world about the history and culture of Mongolia. The success of this book based on historical facts and scientific research and written in a literary style, gave the Mongols and all humankind a feeling for the importance of study of history. I wish you great success in further research and creative work, states the letter.

In Tuva, the collection of means to make a gilded statue of the Buddha continues. These days, a team of the famous group "Tyva Kyzy" has been preparing for a charity concert. The "daughters of Tuva" will be performing with the remarkable Tuvan-Austrian singer Saiyn-Khoo Namchylak. Today, on 23 April, she has left for Kyzyl from Austria, where is her permanent residence.

- It is not our first joint project, - Choduraa Tumat, the leader of the group told the "Tuvinskaya Pravda" correspondent.

- We have the experience of performing together with her in the UNCOOL festival in 2007 in Switzerland. Her singing technique, is really without precedent, it is not in vain that she has been called "The magic voice of Tuva. She responded to our request very actively, and her pay will also go into the fund for building the statue.

International competition in national types of wrestling will take place in 2011 in the capital of Tuva. This decision was reached by sports authorities of Tuva and Mongolia, which is the main initiator of this competition, as announced by the first deputy of the minister of youth and sports affairs Radislav Navazhal, who conducted the talks by assignment by the head of the republic Sholban Kara-ool.

The Mongolians agreed with the Tuvan premier's proposal to annex this event with other activities of the main holiday of Tuva, the Day of the Republic, which will celebrate the 90th anniversary of the founding of the republic.

It is proposed to secure the participation of the strongest wrestlers from Mongolia, Inner Mongolia (China), Russian regions Altai, Buryatia, and Kalmykia in the competitions. It is also expected that athletes of the SNG countries, Kazakhstan, Kirgizia and others will come. Altogether 100 masters of traditional single combat will participate.

A new popular science publication of Tuvan Institute of Humanitarian Studies (TIGI)

"Keepers of Spiritual culture", a collection of articles by a candidate of philological sciences, the chief scientific worker of the folklore section Zoya Samdan. The book has been published with the support of the Ministry of education and studied of Republic Tyva. The chief editor is Doctor of philology K. A. Bicheldei, and the reviewer is Doctor of historical sciences M. B. Kenin-Lopsan.

The author offers a collection of articles to the readers' attention concerning the life and art of the carriers and keepers of Tuvan spiritual culture - S. A. Saryg-ool, M. B. Kenin-Lopsan, A. K. Kalzan, Yu. L. Aranchyn, and O. K. Daryma, as well as of many experts in Tuvan folklore.

These portraits and thoughts on the ways of the preservation and development of Tuvan spiritual culture were written during the past decade and published in various collections, journals and periodicals of the republic.

Books are eternal. No Internet can ever compete with a product of the printing press - it is forever. For posterity. There is an event that represents a milestone for Tuva, and for Turkologists of the entire country and of the world: a massive work of a collective of authors has just been published - Nikolai Katanov's "Sketches of the Uriangkhai country". It is a diary of Nikolai Fedorovich's travels "undertaken in 1889 on assignment by the Imperial Academy of Sciences and the Imperial Russian geographic Society" - an extremely interesting record about the ways of life and existence of the ancestors of today's Tuvans. The notes were recorded daily during the exploration of the center of ASIA, FROM 13 March TO 3O August. And already one month after the end of the expedition, on 26 September, the manuscript was ready for publication. But…

Tibetan experts will study Buddhist treasures of the Altai

Specialists from Tibet are coming to Republic Altai to study hidden Buddhist spiritual treasures, or terma of the earth, which were found there in 2002 in a cave.

On Sunday of 24 April they will research in Barnaul these cultic objects, which have been kept for all these years at the building of the Ongudai district administration of Republic Altai, to identify them and to come to an expert opinion.

Among the objects found in the Ongudai district, beside the terma texts, are rosaries, a bell, two vajras (a sacred weapon of Hindu and Buddhist mythology), fabric for wrapping the book, with a buckle in a vajra form, and two figures of lions or celestial dogs.

These discovered treasures have a great scientific value and can help to study the spread of Buddhism in Gornyi Altai, as the ministry of tourism of Republic Altai believes.

Dear colleagues! International Scientific-Practical Conference on «Modern Turcology: Development Trends and Current Challenges» has been scheduled for May 17-18, 2011 at the Kazakh State Women’s Pedagogical University, organized in honor of the 20 th anniversary of the Republic of Kazakhstan and in memory of the 80th anniversary of the well-known scientist and turcologist, Doctor of philological science, Professor Abzhan Kuryshzhanuly. Conference Sessions include: General issues of Turcology, Runic scripts studies and history of Turkic languages, Issues of Turkic terminology, History and culture relations of the Turkic people: issues of Anthropology and Ethnography, Succession of the elements of world linguistic layout in the old Turkic and modern Turcology, Turcology teaching challenges and particular Turkic languages, Current challenges of modern Turkic languages and Literature.

According to legend, Genghis-khan was buried in a place which he himself pointed out, on the slope of one of the peaks of the mountain massif Burkhan-Khaldun - a sacred mountain of ancient Mongols. This mountain once save young Temujin's life, hiding him in its inaccessible thickets and crevices; he always came here before portentous events for the support of the supreme deity of the Mongols, Eternal Blue Heaven, a deity living on mountain peaks, among holy springs. Three rivers originate here - Onon, Kerulen and Tuula.

"One day, hunting in these places, Genghis-Khan stopped to rest under the crown of a huge lone tree. Having spent some time there in a condition of semi-forgetfulness, then he got up and said that he would like to be buried precisely there when he dies," - states the legend.

Novosibirsk Akademgorodok archeologists put on exhibit for public viewing a carpet embroidered two thousand years ago. This carpet was found in 2009 in a kurgan of the nomadic empire of Hsiung-Nu in the Noin-Ula mountains on the territory of Mongolia, 120 kilometers of Ulan-Bator. The fabric embroidered with human figures was lying at the bottom of the burial pit, which had been robbed already in the ancient times. Restoration of the artifact, undertaken by restorers of the Moscow Kremlin museums took more than one year.

- The archeologists successfully recovered these masterpieces, then in the shape of clumps of mud, from a depth of 10-12 meters. Things like that are not in the Louvre, nor in the Hermitage, - says the deputy director of Institute of Archeology and ethnography of SO RAN, academician Vyacheslav Molodin.

Today was the last day of the International exhibition of tourist and recreational services and airlines, "Tursib-2011", which took place in MVD "Sibirskaya Yarmarka" in Novosibirsk. Among the multitude of Russian and international participants, the Tuvan presentation booth was visibly different in its exotic appearance, at the very least to visitors who are used to relax on sandy beaches of foreign countries. A traditional Tuvan yurt, with interior furnishings, masters of the yurt wearing national attire and a shaman with a drum presented an inimitable image of Tuva. People approached, examined the yurt with interest, took photographs.

To top it off, the well-coordinated work of Tuvan tour operators did not leave the visitors indifferent.

Constant raids by the anti-poacher tam "Irbis" with the support of WWF facilitated the removal of the menace to snow leopards in the southern part of the "Sayano-Shushenskiy" nature sanctuary. The anti-poacher brigade "Irbis" is a joint group of inspectors from several neighboring specially protected territories of the southern Krasnoyarsk Krai,, Khakassia and Tuva. This group has been receiving permanent support by WWF for the struggle with illegal hunting in snow leopard habitats for the past several years. A raid of the active group in February-March allowed the group to encompass the territory on the border of the "Sayano-Shushenskiy" nature sanctuary, the protected zone and adjacent areas of "Khan-Deer" area and preserve "Ubsunur depression" (Tuva).

A special edition of "New research on Tuva" Journal about Tuvan ethno-musicology

Dear Friends! We are offering to your attention a new special edition of our journal "Tuvan ethno-musicology: Landmarks of history and bibliography" (in Russian only), which was prepared by a member of our editorial board, Doctor of Culturology Valentina Suzukei. This work represents a short overview of the history of Tuvan musicology; how it became an independent and interesting sub-discipline of Tuvinology. It is intended for musicologists, anthropologists and other scholars and scientists who study Tuvan traditional culture, as well as for students and people who are interested in Tuvan culture. The special edition can be found in our electronic library and it is available for download and study. We would welcome your feedback, response and information regarding our new publications, which would enrich our bibliographic file on the subject.

Today marks 85 years from the day of birth of the famous Russian ethnographer and tuvinologist Sevyan Vainshtein (1926 - 2008). He was born in Moscow in the family of professor of philosophy Izrail Yakovlevich Vainshtein, who was the head of a department of the Moscow Aviation Institute. According to his son's reminiscences, he was a romantic, who deeply believed in the ideals of the Revolution. He defended it as a member of the First Horse Army during the years of the Civil War. Sevyan Izrailevich's mother came to the Soviet Union from Riga. She was enthusiastic about the idea of building a new world, taught German language, and wrote poems.

On 30 April 2011 at the House of National Art, a charity concert of Sainkhoo Namchylak and group "Tyva Kyzy" will take place. This concert is dedicated to the construction of a Buddha statue on Mt. Dogee. Our celebrated artists will perform throat-singing in various styles. Each artist will take up her own niche at the performance. Sainkhoo Namchylak performs throat-singing in her own way, the group "Tyva Kyzy" also have their own niche; they perform throat-singing in various traditional styles. There will also be the National artist of Russian Federation Nadezhda Kuular, Honored culture worker of Republic Tyva Opal Shuluu, and Honored artist of Republic Tyva Shonchalai Oorzhak-Choodu.